Move On
by R. K. Averomono
Summary: “It was outlined in Sir Integra’s final will that Alucard was to be destroyed after she died." Last Chapter
1. Chapter One

"Move On"

R. K. Averomono

"Seres could feel nothing, but she clung to Alucard's memory of Sir Integra's face relaxing into death. Seres felt some satisfaction and esteem for Sir Integra. The old woman _had_ gotten the better of the vampire in the end."

Sir Integra had been dead for years, but the dark Hellsing mansion remained loyal to her. The old house, put up for sale by the British government, remained empty. The rumors of a bloody history surrounding the property never seemed to fade. However, the building did not attract attention. No one took interest in the overgrowing hedges or the boarded up windows or the curious "No Trespassing" signs that usually enticed vandals. The Hellsing House was one of a thousand ancient mansions that made up London, huge but plain and incredibly forgettable. If it looked a little creepy from the street, then it looked still more like the other mansions. London itself was old and creepy.

At first, this brought Seres Victoria much relief. She and her master had nowhere else to live.

If the royal family had any suspicions that Hellsing's vampires were still living there, they'd never sent anyone to investigate the matter. Seres and Alucard lived undisturbed, watching the paintings of the old masters fade on the wall.

They were their own masters now. And the mansion was their's. Or, it was Alucard's.

"Spoils of war," was how Alucard had put it. He naturally assumed responsibility of what was left of Integra's fortune, the house and everything in it. After all, there was no more Hellsing family and no Hellsing Organization for that matter to claim it.

"I win because I'm still alive and they're all dead. I always knew this was how it would be." Alucard walked from bedroom to bedroom as if he had never been in them before, sizing them up, nodding and looking very satisfied. He was excited with freedom. Now he had a huge empty house all his own and it looked to Seres like he intended to make it into a personal fortress.

"You're being absurd." Seres announced, perfectly revealing her thoughts by rolling eyes with just her tone. She slowly climbed up the grand staircase after her over-excited master. "I know you don't have any shame...but couldn't you just pretend?"

"I'm just taking back what's mine," Alucard replied from who-knows-where.

"Yeah, everything's yours," Seres sighed at the top of the stairs and looked down the empty hallway, wondering which room his was desecrating now. "Sir Integra's grave isn't even settled yet and you're redecorating, but whatever. Whatever you say."

"This is the first time you'll be able to live like a true vampire," Alucard said. "I was afraid your development would be stunted by Hellsing's silly restrictions, but fate has smiled on us."

Seres followed his voice. "Since when have you ever cared about me?"

She found her master standing in the master bedroom. Seres stood at the threshold, hand gingerly placed on the door molding, not daring to go inside. She didn't belong in Sir Integra's bedroom, dead or alive, now or a hundred years from now. The air hung with the stench of lingering death and pain. Seres felt the presence of the old woman's authority as certainly as she felt the floor under her feet. She resisted the urge to warn Alucard that he didn't belong in there either, strutting around Integra's deathbed like it was a damn trophy.

Alucard was looking at the enormous bed. "Yes, this will do."

Seres stared at the back of his head. "It'll do for what?"

He looked over his shoulder at her, grinning. "I'm moving my coffin here."

"Um." Seres felt the wood molding against her finger tips singe through her gloves, as if the room was suddenly on fire, but her hand was firmly pressed against the doorway and she made no move to let go. "That's....that's very petty. You HAVE to sleep here?"

"Oh, yes. Only this room will do."

"Even though it faces east? Sunlight will be shining through those huge windows for most of the day, you know."

"It's utterly pathetic that you're frightened of a dead woman." Alucard laughed at Seres and brushed by her. Apparently this was very funny to him and he continued to chuckle as he went down the stairs. "Even alive, she was bedridden and feeble, a helpless old woman with no power left."

"You're not seriously going to put your coffin in Sir Integra's bedroom, are you?" She stood at the top of the landing, nervously folding her arms and then planting her hands on her hips and then folding her arms again.

"It's my room now," Alucard corrected her. "It's only fitting I take sleep in the master bedroom, don't you agree?" His smile was full of sharp teeth. "Besides, you shouldn't worry about me so much. You should be looking out for yourself—after all, that nice, convenient medical blood you love to drink will run out soon."

Seres's lips pressed together tightly. She KNEW that, he didn't have to remind her. "I'm not like you. Don't you get it? I don't have it in me to pick out some random person and kill them like it's nothing. I'll find a way around all that."

"Of course you will."

"You have no faith in me. Like usual." She turned away from him and folded her arms. She lifted her head, feeling determined. "I don't need you anyway. I'll figure it out on my own."

Seres wasn't figuring it out on her own.

Vampirism was settling over her like a gloomy rain cloud. When the Hellsing Organization had dissolved, the option of drinking medical blood disappeared and she knew it was only a matter of time before she'd become a killer. She spent every waking moment suppressing her appetite, dreading the moment she'd lose control, all while trying to piece together a plan.

"I don't even know what I'm trying to accomplish. I guess...staying alive is all I can hope for." She tried to remain calm. But then hunger pains would wrack her body and jumble her thoughts until all intelligent thinking boiled down to emotion. Anger, mostly.

She walked through the rooms of the house slowly, remembering the people who used to work there. People who's names she didn't know – the extremely Italian chef and a chubby maid, the two doormen who always smiled at her. The Hellsing mansion had never been a bustling household, but she was painfully aware of how dead it was now in comparison to before. Her footsteps seemed so loud.

"I wish...Walter was here." She was in the kitchen now, tracing her fingers over the counter tops, making lines in the dust. "Damn Alucard. Jerk. God, I'm hungry."

Alucard returned to the house, hunger fully satisfied courtesy of the Greater Art Community of London. He couldn't resist the snobbish elite that art gallery openings drew. They were usually so wrapped up in themselves. It was nothing to lure them away.

"I've lost all my manners," he chided himself before a mirror.

In times of weakness, she would throw herself on Walter's bed and cry helplessly, begging God to stop the unbearable aches of hunger or at least let her die. She couldn't make herself believe that her own life was worth more then anyone else's. She couldn't kill. So she tried to put the hunger from her mind. She had grown used to the weakness and exhaustion that vampires feel after going days without drinking blood, but after months had passed by, she couldn't walk or even sit up without being wracked by pain shooting from every muscle and joint. Without blood, she was cramping up from rigor mortis.

"Master..."

"No," came the voice instantly in her mind, full of impatience and cruelty "If you want the pain to go away, you know what you have to do. Don't bother me."

A little smile grew on Seres' white, sweaty face. So her master WAS close by, as she suspected, watching her. She raised a trembling hand to wipe her damp forehead. Maybe luck was on her side tonight. "I'm not getting up."

"Then you'll die."

"Maybe," Seres agreed simply. She was baiting him. He knew it, and she knew he knew it. Playing with her master like this was a dangerous game.

"You're a coward, you don't have the resolve to just lay there and die. You'll get up eventually, and your hunger will drive you to your prey." He paused. "And I know you think I'm going to save you, but there's nothing I can do for you. Even if there was something, I wouldn't. I'm tired of being patient with your denials. If you can't bring yourself to be nosferatu, I wish you would hurry up and die. You embarrass me."

"You're not so brave either," Seres said, her voice hollow and breathless. It was bold, too bold, but then she didn't see herself living much longer anyway. Talking was so painful. She twisted on the sheets, panting.

She came to the realization, laying there, that didn't actually like Alucard. There was something undeniably attractive about him, she could admit that, and she had always clung to him, pined for his attention. But out from under Hellsing's seal, he had grown even more cruel and distant, and he killed humans to feed now. She had never seen it done, but she often heard the screams his tortured victims and found evidence of their unnatural deaths in Integra's bedroom.

Her sweaty hands clenched into fists.

She didn't want to become like him.

Alucard's laughing filled the room, and then there was silence, as if he had gone away.

Seres wasn't frightened. She could still sense him, though he had withdrawn from her uppermost consciousness. "If you go away," she said, "before I drink your blood, I'll die for sure, whether I kill or not."

Alucard didn't reply.

"It's like, if I knew as much, maybe I'd be just as powerful as you. But you don't tell me anything. You just like to sit back and watch me mess up, and then you pick on me for not knowing anything." Having Alucard's power was hardly what Seres wanted, but she needed to keep talking, keep Alucard engaged until he accidentally let slip some obscure fact that might save her life, or until he killed her and ended the suffering.

"Killing is the first step," Alucard's voice echoed. "Got to crawl before you can kill, and all that. See if you can perform at least the basics, then I'll teach you something useful."

"To what end?" Her vision was blurring, the panels in the ceiling morphing together. "I'll still be weak, but I'll be a murderer then, too. A vampire with a one-way ticket to Hell? And didn't you tell me, Master, that older vampires resent young ones, and even make sport of killing them off so that there's less competition?

"Is that a shot at me?" Alucard asked innocently.

"I'd say..." Seres struggled not to ramble, to make sense or else lose his attention, "that it's in my best interest to die to way I am, with a clean slate, rather then dirty myself just so that a certain older vampire can pick me off for sport."

"You're no sport." The morphing ceiling became Alucard. He floated over Seres. "Masters don't do that to their own brood, anyway, you idiot. To another's, but not their own. And stop breathing deeply like that, as if you need air to live. You stopped needing to breath a long time ago. It's irritating."

"Don't change the subject, I know that. I like breathing, I like smelling." She knew most of her bodily functions were unnecessary now, save for her beating heart. How odd, that she was a living corpse, yet her heart still fluttered inside the cage of her chest. She clung to the old involuntary actions of a human body like a security blanket. That she could ever desire to menstruate or use the bathroom or bleed like a normal person must seem ridiculous to those who do it all the time, but Seres was desperate to relive any experience remotely human, so she wouldn't forget what she really was.

"What you really are?" Alucard's tone was still a taunt, but a forced taunt, trying to cover a brewing anger she could sense telepathically.

Seres clammed up immediately. Her master had been delving into her thoughts again. And she had thought her mental barriers were getting stronger. She had to stay alert, and not let her mind wander.

"That's an interesting mental slip," he said, fading out of sight and reappearing at the foot of the bed. "You KNOW in your mind you really are a vampire, but your heart won't accept the truth. You think all you have to do is deny your physiology, keep yourself pure long enough and your mortality will return to you. I thought you had matured at least past THAT point. I'm disappointed in you. I can't believe you came from me."

"I didn't come from you!" Seres said, curling her legs under to body, maximizing the distance between her self and him. His face was concealed in the shadow of his dark locks, but his eyes were glowing, somehow fiercer then normal. "If I embarrass you, do something about it. Teach me something so I can make you proud."

"Your incapable of doing ANYTHING that would make me proud. The only thing I want is to see you take care of yourself, just hunt and drink blood, that's all. The BASICS, so I can be rid of you." He was gone again. He was phasing in and out of the room, as he sometimes couldn't keep still when he was agitated, undecided of whether to stay or leave.

"I knew you were a weak human, but I thought with a little strength you'd...no, instead you stayed weak. So pathetic. I should have thought better. Weak humans just make weak vampires..." He was muttering to himself, restless and frustrated.

Something strange was happening. As Seres lay, her vision blurred and for a moment, she felt it had nothing to do with her waning strength. Her eyes were fixated on Alucard's phasing and he was all she could see. The room melted away. His voice became two voices, one muttering, one whispering—whispering, barely audible, but distinctly tired, and despairing—this whisper she paid close attention to. Were these Alucard's thoughts? Was he talking to her? It was not his voice though. It almost sounded like...

Seres heard herself repeating those words: "But strong humans are too good for your blood. Is that what Sir Integra told you?"

A whole five seconds of complete silence passed, long enough for Seres to realize she hade made a huge tactical error.

She couldn't see his red eyes, her vision was completely obscured by his inky black hair covering her face. She couldn't hear her own screaming, or feel herself thrashing for her life under his iron jaws. Those activities were all going on somewhere in her body that her brain was detached from. All she could hear was his thoughts: "'I just want you to disappear, or least I want to disappear from you. Anything, just as long as we're not together. I'm too old to deal with you anymore.'"

Seres eyes raked over Alucard's exposed memory as he remembered it. Ancient Sir Integra, eyes sunken, skin paler then Alucard's from chemotherapy, her hair limp and falling out. Alucard's wrist bitten open, blood seeping out in rivers spilling over the sheets, over Integra's hospital gown. Integra's bony, ungloved hand, dappled in liver spots, rose and pushed his wrist and the immortal blood away. "Let me be already. You shame me."

"You don't have the resolve to just lay there and die," Alucard said. "Fear will drive you back to me..."

"Don't project yourself on me. Just because YOU didn't have the resolve...or maybe you just lacked the courage to die."

"Are you calling me a coward?"

"I'm calling you a sellout." Blue eyes closed without regret. "The finish line is in sight—and there's nothing you can do to stop me from winning."

The sheets soaked up the blood, but Alucard continued to keep his arm raised in offer. "You think death is winning?"

A small, sincere smile cross her face as she replied, "I've had to suffer the consequences of compromising with you my whole life, having to struggle with you, having to battle wills against you. Not giving you what you want at the end...that's how I win."

Seres could feel nothing, but she clung to Alucard's memory of Sir Integra's face relaxing into death. Seres felt some satisfaction and esteem for Sir Integra. The old woman _had_ gotten the better of the vampire in the end.

Seres Victoria was dead.

He had been overzealous in his passion to punish her, and now pieces of her were strewn about the room. She had died exactly the way she predicted—picked off by her own master, but with a clean slate. Cowardly, perhaps, but she had tricked him into getting what she wanted—an out.

"A waste of time," Alucard said to the lid of his coffin. His hands were folded neatly over his stomach. "At least I won't have to contend with her crying and keeping me awake. I can sleep now." However, the pestering suspicion that he might be an idiot worried him. He couldn't sleep. Killing Seres like that had been stupid. It was evidence of his lack of self-restrain, a weakness that could potentially get him killed.

Beams of sunlight streamed through the curtains, warming his casket.

He tried to brush off his uncertainties, rationalizing to himself; I win because I'm still alive and they're all dead. This is how things have always been. And here I am, again, the only one left and all the spoils of war are mine. There's nothing to worry about.

But then, was he really alone?

The sound of a soft foot scuff made him wonder.

Alucard lay perfectly still, listening carefully. He could hear something moving around, something walking away from him, something trying to stay quiet. Then the sound was unmistakable.

Seres panted, trying with all her might to keep herself together. Literally. She clung to the handrail, but her wrists felt like they were going to re-detach from her arms. Her newly re-formed legs were wobbly, too. But she couldn't stop. She had to keep going and get as far away from her master as she could.

"I don't need his dirty blood to keep myself alive," she told herself, descending step-by-step, shaking with effort, pain and fear. The first floor seemed so far away. The slightest creak in the stairs might disturb her master, but she could hardly tip toe now. If only she could make a break for the door, in a huge burst of speed...it was so impossible, she might as well wish she could just fly away. She hardly had enough strength to do what she was doing...

"Then why don't you just give up?" Alucard asked, leaning against the railing behind her, at the top of the stairs.

Seres was so shocked, she almost tumbled head-first down the stairs trying to turn around. She caught herself at the last second and steadied herself on the railing. Then, with renewed effort, she made her way down the stairs.

"And once out the door, what will you do in that blinding sunlight? Police Girl? I'm talking to you."

She didn't listen to him. "I have nothing to fear from light."

Alucard chuckled, leaning casually on the banister, running his fingers absently on the top of the railing, which was soaked in Seres's blood. He licked his fingers, savoring his offspring's life-force. "In my state, maybe. But with you starving yourself like that? I'm afraid you'll burn up."

The front door was only inches away. "I'm not scared of anything." Her hand descended upon the latch. She hesitated, half-expecting Alucard to fall upon her again. But nothing happened. She waited a few seconds longer, and still nothing.

"You wont leave me," Alucard assured her. His voice had become rich and deep, seductive and kind, knowing he would win again. Win as always. For him, nothing would ever change.

Seres unlatched the lock and the door opened. "Your winning streak is over." The door swung open wide and bright, warm sunlight filled the room. Then it shut as quickly as it had opened, and Seres was gone.


	2. Chapter Two

"Move On"

R. K. Averomono

Chapter Two

"You'll do what I want--if I find the right words. Tell me, Seres, what words do you want to hear?"

Seres savored the sunlight.

It wasn't painful at all, the way Alucard warned her it would be, and she absorbed it with joy. She breathed in the smell of damp grass and cool mud. The sun was blinding, warm and perfect. Her senses were overwhelmed.

Her body had fallen apart again, had fallen apart an hour ago, halfway off the property somewhere in the shooting range. The field was so overgrown that wild weeds had overtaken the man-shaped cardboard targets set up in the distance.

Seres was on the verge of giggles. That horrible house and her master were far behind her. Even if she never got up again and rotted in that very field, she had proven her worthiness.

To whom had she proven her worthiness? To...God? To herself? To the memory of Sir Integra, maybe, or the memory of her father or her old comrades before Hellsing shut down, or even her old friends at the police force.

No matter what force would ultimately judge the value of her life, she would be seen as a human. Alucard couldn't mold her.

Alucard.

The thought of him made her tense, stirred in her a desire to rise and keep on moving. Just because he had not followed her out did not mean he would not. Being the indecisive creature that he was, he might come for her at any time. She doubted it though. She wasn't his little fainting pet anymore, and her refusal to drink his blood must have disgusted him. He probably could never understand why anyone wouldn't want to be just like him. It had been both their wishes for her to leave. She couldn't imagine they would ever meet again.

Still, before she knew it, she was standing once more, though she had no conscious memory of willing her limbs back to her torso. Her legs wobbled with effort.

"How am I going to keep myself from falling apart?" she wondered, slowly limping across the field. The grass brushed against her legs and waist, and the blood leaking out from between her hastily re-fastened appendages wiped off on the blades. Then, the blood would animate itself and come trailing after her like small children toddling after their mother. A whole trail of blood was following her in a snake-like pattern. It bothered her, so she tried not to look behind her.

Seres soon found herself out of the camps and into the trees, wandering through a wooded area that had never been kept, even when Integra was alive. She wandered through clumps of bushes, hugging her body with her misshapen arms. As she walked on and on, the trees were larger and grew closer together, their claw-like branches shutting out the sun.

"God, I don't remember any of this..." After about a half hour, she wondered if she was going in circles. She should have been well off the property by now. Where the hell had she wandered? She turned around, eager to re-trace her steps back out of the wooded area and back into the fields, but chest-high bushes full of thorny branches confronted her. "What? This wasn't here a moment ago."

Seres froze. Of course she didn't remember this...this wasn't real. There was no telling when it had happened, but she had stumbled into a hallucination sent by Alucard. She could tell by the way all the tress suddenly lacked leaves, by the black bark, by the thorns and the long shadows. This was a world of Alucard's making. His style was obvious.

"What is he thinking?" Seres was appalled. "Could...could he want to kill me for leaving?" She suspiciously eyed every shadow, every tree, waiting for sinister red eyes to open, but they didn't. "Lazy _bastard." _Seres felt more insulted then distressed. Alucard was obviously still in the mansion, probably half-sleeping in his coffin and sending little nightmares to Seres to keep her distracted so he could come look for her once it got dark. He wouldn't endure the bothersome sunlight just to look for her.

"We'll you're going to regret it. By the time you wake up, I'll be long gone and you'll never find me." It was a proud boast; especially knowing she was trapped in Alucard's fantasy. She admitted to herself that she couldn't escape without him releasing her. How could she press on?

"I'm still _somewhere_." She thought out loud. "Right now, I'm standing in a field or a forest, or in the street with a dozen strangers walking past me...who're all looking at me because I'm talking to myself." Her lips pursed thoughtfully. God, she hoped that wasn't the case. She was somewhere. If she walked, her legs would carry her somewhere. So, she walked, with her hand out in front of her to make sure she didn't accidentally walk into anything real. She kept wondering if a car was about to hit her.

Trying to take her mind off any possible immanent danger, Seres examined her out-stretched arms and saw with relief that her body seemed to be healing. She could wiggle her arms a bit and it felt like the bones inside had fused together. There were still deep gashes in her flesh and blood slowly continued to seep out, but the blood was aware of itself and clung to her skin without dripping off. It slithered back up towards the wounds. It was so strange. It was like her blood was a separate entity from herself, with a mind of it's own...

Suddenly, trees began springing out of the ground, shaking the earth beneath her feet. With a shriek, Seres tumbled to the ground, falling face-first into the mud and leaves. She spat out the dirt and looked up. What was Alucard doing now? She watched in horror as tree after tree grew in a circle around her, the trunks so thick that there would be no squeezing through them. The branches of each tree entwined around another's, as did the roots.

Seres stood up again, wincing in pain and grinding her teeth. Her right femur had snapped again when she fell and it took a great deal of concentration on her part to make it straight. She clasped her hand against her tender thigh. "Great," she gritted through her clenched fangs.

Seres hobbled over to one of the thick tree trunks. She placed her hands against the rough, black bark and, indeed, it felt solid. She pushed against it with both hands, but it remained. If it was a hallucination, it had convinced the part of her brain that might have allowed her to walk through it. She tried to wiggle her hand in between the trunks, but she could only get her fingertips through.

She stood a back a bit and looked up and down the tree. No getting through it.

"Damn it." She groaned. "Damn it. Damn it." This was so stupid. She had gotten so far only to be stopped by an illusion, a bad illusion at that. "Damn it!" She pounded her fist uselessly on the trunk. "Don't you get it?! I don't want you! I don't want you anymore then you want me!" Her pounding fists became scratches, her vampire-nails digging deep into the wood. She was brimming with frustration and hate. "You said you wanted me to go away! So I'm going! Why are you trying to stop me?!"

Seres was shot in the face by a spray of blood. She fell backwards on her rump and quickly wiped her face. "What? What is this?" She looked up and saw the tree was bleeding from the deep gashes in the wood.

Around her, the other trees were writhing in pain, swaying and groaning.

"That's it!" She sprang up and began biting and slicing the wounded tree, snarling and snapping like a wild thing. "Get out of my way!" The tree shuddered and suddenly the branches un-twisted from the other branches and the roots unearthed themselves and dove for Seres. The branches wrapped around her wrists, dragging her away from the trunk of the tree. Then the roots wrapped around her ankles, all pinning her against the ground, spread-eagle.

Seres shrieked, thrashing in the dirt, stretching so her fangs could snap at the branches, but they were just out of her reach. "Let me go!" she demanded.

The tree responded by leaning over and extending another claw-like branch. It wrapped around Seres's elbow and the healing gash that bled there. "No! No!" Seres cried, but the tree gripped her wounded arm anyway and yanked the appendage sharply, cracking the newly formed bone. Seres screamed and the tree delighted in her pain. The branch split into many branches, all which grew and made their way to Seres's wounds, intent on doing the same thing.

"Don't touch me!" Seres tried to kick, but the more she struggled, the harder the first branch pinned her down. The second branch began to harass her more aggressively, first breaking the bones in her tender arm, and then stabbing into her flesh. Even the tiny twigs wrapped themselves in her hair and pulled.

Then, the second branch, whose main trunk was floating over Seres's face, rippled in the bark and a single, crimson eye opened and focused on her. For a moment, that second branches' limps eased the torture on her body, though the first branch continued to hold her down. On one of the limbs of the second branch, which had punctured the flesh of her inner thigh, a small mouth opened and began to lick the wound clean of blood.

"You!" Seres snarled indignantly, more like an animal then a woman. "_Don't touch me_!"

The eyes squinted a bit. The branch that was licking her responded by encircling her thigh and crushed it like a snake, squeezing more blood out. It eagerly licked up the scurrying streams.

Seres looked around desperately, but there was no easy escape. There was nothing she could do. However, she did notice something; above the both of them, high in the sky, the patch where the branches had been was empty and Seres could see the sky, the blue sky. It was still daylight, though maybe now mid-afternoon by the longer shadows. Alucard was still at home. Even now, these shadowy-demons were just his hellhounds. _I still have time_, she thought, staring back at the bloody-eye that regarded her. The branch finished lapping her blood and stroked her punctured skin. The rest of the branches began following suit, slithering up and down her body in an attempt to sooth her and stop her from struggling.

"Don't do that to me," Seres told him, her eye twitching, trying to keep herself from crying. It was more then just the pain she felt in her limbs. "How dare you try to take me back after everything you've done to me?! You think you're so great? You think you can do anything you want to people? Do you think it's every human's secret dream to be a monster like you? It's not! No one wants to be like you!"

The thick branch morphed into a huge snake with gleaming, familiar red eyes. It hissed menacingly at Seres, flicking a forked red tongue through it's fangs. It's coils were now what was wrapped around Seres body and it began to squeeze her, forcing her to be silent.

She could no longer shout. Blood was streaming from her mouth and her hands shook compulsively as her nerves were crushed. Her mind raced, desperately trying to think what she could do now. How had anyone defeated this vampire in the first place? And these were just his familiars she was dealing with now. How had Sir Integra ever manage to deal with him? What would Sir Integra do if she were here right now?

"If I die..." she gasped, "...that's one more person...you couldn't have your way with."

The snake relaxed and it slithered into a pile on top of her chest. The head of the snake weaved and bobbed inches from her face. Seres blinked. She didn't want to try and get up. She lay perfectly still.

Get up. The snake was hissing deeply, and behind it, Alucard's deep voice resonated. Get up and fight me. 

"Ma....Alucard?" she thought back to him. "I'm not going to fight you."

The snake continued it's memorizing dance. _You wanted my respect, Police Girl? Fight me. Even if you lose...and you will lose...I can respect your effort. Then you can come home to me._

Seres glared at the snake. "I don't want to come home to you. Do you get it yet? I don't want to go back."

Yes you do. You're just acting like a little girl running away from home so daddy can come and rescue you from the night and assure you how much he loves you.

Seres gritted her teeth. "You've completely misjudged me!"

The snake gathered at her throat and began to caress her cheek. Seres jerked away from his offensive touch.

Don't you want to hear me say how much I want you back?

"No, actually, I don't."

No? Even if I say you're impressing me with your resolve? You're quite determined all of a sudden. I like it. I like it so much in fact I'm willing to give you a second chance. Put an end to your willfulness and return to my side.

"The only thing that impresses you is yourself. You'll say anything to make me do what you want and I'm not falling for it. And anyways, I don't want to be like you. You can't offer me anything I want..."

You'll do what I want--if I find the right words. Tell me, Seres, what words do you want to hear?

Seres turned up her nose at the vampire-snake. "I wont fight you and I wont obey you. I wont do anything. I'd just as soon sit here forever and do nothing for you." She looked down at grinned at the slithering creature. "I'm sure you'd hate that most of all...If I did nothing."

Then I'll come for you myself. And I'll bring you something sweet to drink.

Sir Integra never would have stood for this. Seres wanted this to be over already. "'Let me be already. You shame me.'"

The snake paused in it's bobbing. After a few moments, the head retracted into its coils. You insolent little bitch. How dare you talk like that to me. The snake was hissing and rattling.

"It still angers you, doesn't it?"

It stings my pride, all those years spent at the mercy of those inferior, smug creatures, ordering me around like a dog. And then you bring it up, you who speaks down to me as if you were one of those bastards...

"No, I mean, it angers you that Sir Integra didn't accept your blood."

Ridiculous! The snake uncoiled and recoiled in a mad fit. It was so mad it eventually tumbled off of Seres's belly and wiggled wildly in the dirt, like a worm trying to escape a robin. Suddenly, the snake disintegrated and became a pile of dirt. Alucard's concentration had broken.

Then, the whole forest dissolved and warm, orange light filled Seres's senses.

"The...the hallucination faded!" Seres sat up, elated. And then she looked down at her body—apparently, the injuries she had sustained had also just been an illusion. Her body was completely healed. She looked around to get her bearings. Then she realized where she was. "Oh my God."


	3. Chapter Three

The first thing she thought of was Walter. Then Pip, Ferguson and Sir Integra. They were all here. It was like she had come home.

Seres walked between rows of soldiers' headstones. What bothered her most about remembering these proud dead was how most of their faces blurred together, their individual achievements lost to the long span of years that distorted her memory. What guilt immortality brought. So many battles she had lived to see, so many heroes she had forgotten.

Towards the center of this privet cemetery, the monuments of the Hellsings stood erect. Not being a close-knit family, there was no family plot with headstones crowded around each other like children cuddling, but lonely mausoleums for every Hellsing there had ever been. They stood apart, each crypt competing with the previous generation for more attention.

The sun had fallen. Stars began to bud in the purple sky. Looking up at the dappled moon rising, Seres knew she was still too close to the Hellsing mansion to elude Alucard's detection and by the way he seemed to be unyielding in his resolve to reclaim her, Seres knew her master would be here any minute, if he wasn't here already.

She had no weapons. She was in no condition to fight. Every part of her body was ready to fall off. Seres breathed deeply, trying to remember how she used to calm herself down when she was human. "I need a plan. I can't run and I can't fight..."

Suddenly, Seres realized there might be one place she could hide where even Alucard could not find her. Even if Alucard _did_ suspect where she was, he couldn't _get_ her! Not there, not in the place where the old masters had gone through ridiculous lengths to prevent vampires from entering.

She ran as fast as she could toward the very center of the cemetery where the Hellsing mausoleums stared each other down. Every Hellsing, and certain friends of Hellsing, once deceased, were protected by many rituals to prevent desecration by angry vampires. In essence, each crypt had a magical wall that prevented a vampire's powers from passing through. If Seres barred the door, there would be no way Alucard could use his sorcery on her. Even his powers of super-human strength would disappear, preventing him from forcing the door. Seres would remain unharmed.

Seres stopped in front of the most beautifully crafted mausoleum with the boldly engraved roman capitals spelling out "Integra".

She stared up at that name. Even now, Seres could see the old woman's face staring sternly down at her, demanding to know exactly why she had invaded her personal space, as Sir Integra often did when Seres merely entered the same room as her. Sir Integra's mistrust and loathing of the police girl never went away. In fact, it worsened with age. Alucard delighted in her jealously. Integra raged at Alucard's delight. Seres cowered before their shouting and cried when there was suddenly silence.

"He's a bad person," Seres implored "And I want to get him as much as you ever did. I think there's a way for us both to get what we want, but I need your help."

There was nothing Seres could do to surprise him, though she was managing to offer him a little entertainment beyond the shrieking, screaming women that uselessly tired to claw out his eyes every night.

Alucard actively searched for Seres's thoughts, but she had "gone silent". Not before she had foolishly revealed her plan to him, though. When humans, or young vampires for that matter, tried to shield their thoughts from a vampire's psychic delving, they always ended up giving away more information then they would have by _not_ trying, since they ultimately thought about everything they didn't want the curious vampire to know, all while their thoughts are being read.

It would have been a clever plan, though. It was mildly worthy of him. After all, ever since disposing overzealous FREAKS, battling Catholic Priests and heating up tea for an elderly woman had previously been part of his daily repertoire, the little police girl's plan was a treat. Besides, he was hardly as engaged as he used to be. He admitted he was growing bored faster then he anticipated he would.

He didn't plan on killing his police girl. Not tonight, anyways. Maybe eventually, but tonight he would have sweet vengeance and, at the same time, rile the little girl. She'd be thrown into a murderous rage that he could tenderly nurture all night, nipping and biting whenever she started to calm down. Seres was still obviously repulsed by his touch by the way she'd reacted to his familiar's probing. He smiled. He anticipated a fierce reaction when he mounted her on Sir Integra's coffin. Despite what Seres thought, he had no fear of Hellsing magic. And while Integra rotted below, he would hammer Seres's body, the way his Integra always fantasized he would do to her but was too proud to beg it of him. Conceited bitch.

Alucard solidified in the cemetery, before the Hellsing mausoleums.

Surrounding the ancient vampire on all sides were his past enemies, his past jailers. But now it seemed that their bodies were trapped inside coffins, trapped inside stone buildings and that mortality was the jailer now. Alucard walked free, tromping merrily on sacred ground, a sense of justice consoling him despite over a century of freedom robbed from his existence.

"However," Alucard announced to the night, "you did triumph in a small way—I will remember you, as much as I wish otherwise. Good for you. You managed to irritate me. It only cost you the happiness of you're entire lives. I did like watching you all cry as you slept, waking up in the middle of the night from nightmares I didn't even have to send you." Alucard turned and regarded the lovely building that was forever Sir Integra's abode.

The giant iron doors had already been unlocked, the chains hanging, "clinging" gently in the breeze. The doors were slightly ajar, but Alucard's enhanced vision could not penetrate the darkness. The enchantment prevented him from using his powers.

Alucard raised his hand and gently touched the door. In the gentlest tone, he whispered, "Hey there, little girl. You got me to chase you." Before Seres had time to realize he was there, he flung open the doors and stepped inside.

There was no scream, no alarm or reaction at all. The crypt remained still. After his eyes, which were affected by the foreign magic, adjusted to the light, Alucard realized he was in this room by himself. Only Integra's narrow coffin, built into the stone wall, kept him company.

Seres burst out of a small mausoleum adjacent to Integra's large one. She slammed Integra's doors shut and forced all her weight against the door.

Alucard spun and realized what had happened. He quickly threw himself against the door, desperate to escape, but his powers had vanished and door barely moved. He could hear Seres re-latching the door and bolting the lock. He was trapped.

Outside, Seres finished fastening the lock. Overcome by exhaustion and fear, she slid down the doors and landed in a heap in the cold stairs, panting and holding back tears. She had never been so terrified in her life. She had almost choked when her moment came. Her knees had trembled, her hands had shook and she wasn't sure if she could cross the short distance between Walter's mausoleum and Integra's without falling to pieces. But here she was. Alucard and Seres's mental connection to each other had been severed by strong magic. She could no longer sense his constant presence in her mind, though she could hear him pounding on the door.

Alucard was completely shocked. He was so confused he couldn't organize a single rational thought. Having previously experienced 20 years in a similar dark cell, he was horrified at the idea he might be left here, even for a few minutes. But the possibility that he might be stuck here indefinitely... Giving up on the door, Alucard turned around the faced the silent, dark crypt. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know where to start. Was he supposed to beg as a punishment? Did he have it in himself to beg? If he didn't admit defeat, would Seres keep him in here for the rest of his immortal existence? If he _did_ admit defeat, would she leave him here anyway? What did she want? What did she want?

Alucard became quiet and still. He had no choice. If he thought it out, he might have devised a clever method of escaping, but the fear of being caged was too much for him to bear. "Let me out." His own voice echoed against the wall.

Outside, still resting against the door, Seres looked up.

Her master's voice was leaking out of the crypt. "Seres, let me out. I promise I won't do you any harm."

Smirking, Seres snorted. Of course he wasn't going to do her any harm. He was in there, and she was out here. She rested her back against the door and let her legs rest, letting her head back and looking up at the sparkling night sky. For once, she really appreciated the beauty of the moon.

"Seres," Alucard attempted, "I'll give you anything you want if you'll just let me go. You've proven you're worth to me. You're a excellent vampire."

Seres nodded, closing her eyes. Damn straight she was.

Alucard searched for the words he thought she needed to hear, but he didn't know what to say. He had to be very careful. If she suspected he was lying, she would leave him. He was sure of that. He needed to engage her in conversation, keep her occupied. Once she walked away, she would never look back. "What do _you_ want, Seres? I can give you anything. You know I have the power."

Seres wasn't tempted. "Nothing pleases me more then the thought of you in the crypt of Hellsing with Sir Integra to guard you. It's fitting. It's what you deserve."

"You think this crumbling stone vault will hold me forever?"

"Long enough for you to starve to death." She smiled. "That's what you get for everything you've done to me. How does it feel to be at someone's mercy who doesn't care about you? Like it?"

Alucard tried to calm himself down. Threats would get him no-where now. "Stop this, Seres. You're still a vampire. What happens here tonight will not change that, no matter how good you feel about yourself right now. When you grow hungry again, when you feel lost, when you don't know where to turn to—that's when you'll need me. I'm you're master." He spoke as tenderly as he could, in a voice that could mesmerize the most hardened warrior. "We've been cruel to each other. Come back to me, police girl. Let's try again."

Seres rose and brushed off her legs, feeling a little sad for she was about to do. "I'm leaving you now."

"You're not prepared to be alone. I know you." His voice was honey.

"Don't project yourself on me. You're the one who can't handle being alone. Good-bye, master." She had already started walking away.

Alucard suddenly went mad. "Little bitch! You ungrateful little bitch!" Pounding sounds came from the doors again. "I saved you! I gave you a home, I _fed_ you!"

Seres continued to walk but not without glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. It was never safe to assume Alucard had run out of aces up his sleeve. Yet, the doors remained shut in the mausoleum and she had no desire to linger in the cemetery.

She was her own master now and the mansion was her's. From now on, everything was going to be done her way.

Alucard's casket was gone, thrown in the garbage along with the soil from his homeland. And Sir Integra's room was locked and it would remain that way. It was a tribute to the reign that had been Hellsing and the glory of all their victories and the victories of their loyal soldiers. She certainly didn't feel safe returning to the Hellsing cemetery to pay her respects.

She would contact MI5 in the morning. Seres was resolute, knowing she didn't feel right about doing anything with her existence but fighting against vampires. Creatures like her master did _not_ deserve to live in the world. It was her duty to prevent what had happened to her from happening to any other young girls or to anyone for that matter. And no person should be reduced to a meal.

She sank down on her bed, looking at her feet. It had been a long, long night. Her bones still hurt. "Maybe I should call MI5 now. I'm _really_ hungry. I bet they could get some medical blood." She looked over at the nightstand where there was an old, black dial phone. She thought about picking it up. She thought about it for a long time but never really moved. Then, her eyes closed and she was asleep.

In the warm dark, with golden streaks of dawn peeking through the drapes, Seres Victoria twirled the phone cord in her delicate fingers. She listened and spoke. It had been a long time since she had talked to a living creature and it felt awkward, as if she were speaking to a child that wasn't all together there.

"I can't believe you're alive, Miss Victoria. Our sources from the Round Table reported that you and the other vampire fled."

"No, we were here, Major. We've been here the whole time."

"That's amazing. What's more amazing is that you've chosen to make contact with us after all this time. What prompted this?"

"I'm afraid I'm alone now. Alucard is gone. Went mad and killed himself."

"Are you all right?"

"We...we weren't especially close. But I've grown terribly lonely, which is why I want to work for her majesty once more. That is, if she'll have me."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. And again, I'm sorry about Alucard, I never would have expected that from him. Well, I never met him, but the stories get around. Perhaps it's better this way. I mean, you're very welcome to join up with us, but we could have never extended the same invitation to him."

"Why not?"

"Orders. Sir Integra wasn't able to finalize the Search and Destroy charge, but we still had strict instructions."

"What?"

"It was outlined in Sir Integra's final will that Alucard was to be 'destroyed' after she died. She thought he would do horrible things if he were left to his own devices. The only options she had was to either lock him away or to destroy him. She didn't want him to waste away and suffer, as she put it, she thought it would be best if his death was quick and painless."

"I...didn't know anything about it."

"Maybe. She ended up in the hospital before she could complete the paperwork, and I know we certainly couldn't charge into that house without knowing how we could take him down. I understand he wasn't... normal."

"He wasn't."

"It's sordid, I think. But if the poor bastard killed himself over _her_, well then I'm glad he never found out what was in store for him. Terrible. It's so complicated, this sad, sad business."

"He knew."

"You think so? Really."

"Yes. I'm sure of it now."

"That makes it even sadder."

"I don't think it's sad, major. Now Alucard has the rest of his afterlife to sort out his issues with Sir Integra. I know they're together, wherever they are."

In the dark, his fingertips traced over the cold stone.

"You're an ungrateful bitch. I hate you."

End


End file.
